BALTIMORE – Add this to the endless ribbon of statistical data that has polluted baseball: David Wells doesn’t pitch very well on the eve of Hurricane Isabel invading the Inner Harbor while making his first attempt at getting his 200th career win.

After two stellar starts, the veteran lefty was poised to become the 99th pitcher in history to win 200 last night at Camden Yards where the Yankees faced the Orioles while looking over their shoulders at Isabel. Instead, Wells absorbed a 5-3 loss in front of 27,108.

Wells, who gave up five runs and seven hits in eight innings, is 14-7 and will get two more chances to win No. 200.

Oddly, Mike Mussina goes for his 200th win today when the O’s and Yankees will try to finish a game that starts at 12:35 before Isabel roars into the Baltimore area.

Wells gave up one run in the first and four in the second but none after that and gave the Yankees a chance to come back. They did, scoring a run in the fourth and two in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough.

Juan Rivera’s two-out, two-run homer in the seventh cut the Orioles’ lead to 5-3 and chased Eric DuBose, who made his eighth major league start. With two outs, Aaron Boone reached on a broken-bat single up the middle and three pitches later Rivera swatted his third homer off the left-field foul pole.

DuBose, 3-5, was replaced by journeyman right-hander Hector Carrasco and he was greeted by Alfonso Soriano’s second single but fanned Bernie Williams to end the rally.

Carrasco gave way to lefty B.J. Ryan after Derek Jeter whiffed leading off the eighth inning. Ryan retired Jason Giambi on a grounder to first baseman B.J. Surhoff before Jorge Posada singled to center. That didn’t lead to anything stressful because Ryan ended the inning on Hideki Matsui’s soft liner to Tony Batista at third.

Jorge Julio worked the ninth for his 34th save.

Wells put the Yankees in a quick 5-0 ditch but fired blanks in the third, fourth and fifth.

After getting three hits off DuBose and not scoring a run in the first when Williams hit into a 4-6-3 double play, the Yankees watched Matsui’s leadoff single in the second go to waste when he was thrown out trying to steal second as Boone was fanning.

Following a perfect third, DuBose gave up a run in the fourth and escaped further damage by inducing Ruben Sierra to bang into an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play.

Larry Bigbie’s opposite-field homer to left with two outs in the first staked the Orioles to a 1-0 lead that swelled to 5-0 in the second when Jay Gibbons repeated Bigbie’s act leading off the inning for his 23rd homer of the season.

Luis Matos and Surhoff followed with singles that put runners at the corner for Deivi Cruz. His bouncer to short plated Matos for a 3-0 lead.